Mexican daily offices attacked by gunmen

New York,
November 15, 2011--A group of unidentified gunmen attacked the premises of the
Mexican daily El Siglo de Torreón early this morning, setting a car on
fire and shooting at the building several times.

Around
2:40 a.m., at least three assailants parked two vehicles in front of the
newspaper's offices in the city of Torreón
in the northern state of Coahuila, the paper reported. They set one of the
cars on fire in front of El Siglo's
main door and left in the other. Before fleeing, the gunmen used assault rifles
to spray the premises with about 20 bullets that police recovered at the scene,
editor Javier Garza told CPJ. One of the offices suffered some damage, but
there were no injuries, he said. Federal and state police, as well as members
of the Mexican army, arrived at the scene shortly after the attack.

"We condemn the attack against El Siglo de
Torreón and urge Mexican authorities to launch
a thorough investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice," said Carlos Lauría,
CPJ's Americas
senior program coordinator. "Criminal organizations will continue targeting the
Mexican media unless federal authorities take decisive and timely actions to
guarantee journalists' safety."

According to Garza, the newspaper had not received any threats. He said that El Siglo de Torreón had published
information about military actions in the area in recent weeks, but could not
point to any specific report that could have triggered retaliation from armed
groups. A similar attack occurred in August
2009, when gunmen fired several shots at the newspaper, but an investigation
into the attack by state authorities produced no results.

Garza said that journalists at El Siglo de Torreón practice self-censorship when covering
organized crime. Reporters do not
identify by name groups involved in shootouts, arrests, or raids, he told CPJ.
The other precautionary measures they take include removing bylines and
rotating reporters out of crime beats, he said.

This is the second attack against a media
facility in 10 days. On November 6, gunmen stormed the newsroom of the daily El Buen Tono in the
state of Veracruz,
vandalized equipment, and set the premises on fire, according to local press reports. Vanguardia, a
newspaper in the city of Saltillo,
was the target of a hand grenade attack. in May. In February, gunmen attacked the facilities of two media companies in the city of Torreón, destroyed
equipment, and killed a TV engineer. Last year, more than a dozen news
facilities were attacked with either guns or explosives.